The digital portrait collection

This post is a version of my Genealogical dead ends revisted post, but it’s about the photograps and illustrations I’ve found of my ancestors rather than just their names. I’ll do one about places sometime, and also about biographies, etc. I have set up a photostream on FlickR so you can see all the images in a slideshow, and I will link to the individual photos from the names of ancestors I have identified below.

It’s worth bearing in mind that ancestry is a geometric progression, i.e. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc. I’ve only included the ancestors I’ve identified up my 9 x Great Grandparents for this catalogue. I’ve identified many generations further back, but the generations in this catalogue alone represent a possible 4,112 people. There are actually fewer because some ancestors married their cousins, and therefore have common ancestors, but I haven’t done badly considering how many there are to identify. It’s actually been a collaborative efforts with help from cousins, such as Hamish.

I’ve included a selection of images in this post, but there will be additional images in the photostream that haven’t been linked to the names below. This project is still work in progress so I will continue to update this post and the photostream.

There are also loads of photographs of James Astley Birtwistle (Nebby) and Mary Muriel Marwood (Mue), the two I’ve linked to are my favourites but they are not very good quality so I need to get better scans.

I think the only two photographs of George Henry Kirby that exist are in the two Kirby wedding photographs above. There’s a number of Ernest Beresford FitzHerbert Wright that I will add to the photostream soon. There are a also couple of portraits of Ernest by Lafayette in the National Portrait gallery that would be interesting to see.

I don’t think there are any photographs of portraits of previous Birtwistle Generations, but I have albums and albums of Birtwistle family photos and I will create a separate photostream for these at some point.

I don’t have a particularly good copy of the photo of Alfred Octavius, but it’s the oldest image we have of a Kirby ancestor that we can identify, and it represents the start of my search for more information on our ancestors. I have two miniatures of Kirby ancestors, but we haven’t identified the sitters, and I doubt we ever will.

Christina Mary ‘Theresa’ Macdonell of Keppoch (1845-1932)

This photograph above of my great great grandmother was kindly sent to me along with many others by my relative Charles Daniel. He’s the grandson of my father’s much loved great great uncle Angus Maitland, and it represents one of the reason I keep this blog going.

Charlotte Rudolphine Louise von Beckman and Child

I have also included this portrait of my great great grandmother Charlotte Rudolphine Louise von Beckman. She was from Sternberg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and is our first European ancestor. The child is possibly Henry Fitzherbert Wright, the grandfather of the Duchess of York. However, it’s more likely to be Ernest Beresford FitzHerbert Wright my great grandfather, as it was in possession of his son Ernest ‘Francis’ Fitzherbert Wright.

This is another one of my favourite images. It’s the earliest image we have of my mother’s maternal ancestors that was very kindly sent to me by my relative Steve Robinson who has been a constant source of family history on this side of my Lancastrian ancestry.

This early calotype of my great great great grandfather is just one of my many finds during my long hours of searching the web. It’s likely to be the earliest photographic image of any of my ancestors.

I don’t actually have a favourite image from this generation but this find of Sir Henry FitzHerbert, and others of his family, is a good example of the Wright family ancestor portraits I have found.

I’m convinced that there will be other images of the Maitland family and tehir ancestors from other generations, and perhaps some of the Macdonell of Keppoch ancestors. But they are probably in private collections, so unless someone gets in touch I probably won’t find them.

I only found this paper cut silhouette of 5 x great grandfather recently. It’s in the National Gallery of Scotland collection and by an unknown artist. I found a portrait of Patrick in The Celtic Magazine that was by his grandson, so I’m hoping to find more images of these ancestors. He appears in two generations as a result of his two marriages.

I was very kindly sent this portrait of my 5 x great grandfather by Edinburgh auctioners Lyon & Turnball. There is a portrait of ‘Children of William Ramsay of Barnton’ by Alexander Nasmyth in the National Galleries of Scotland. Apparently the portrait has been reproduced in a book on Nasmyth by JCB Cooksey. I’ve included this portrait because I have been fascinated by the Ramsay of Barnton family who are not as well documented as some of the more aristocratic families. My research has also introduced me Ramsay relatives from round the globe.

I have found two possible portraits of Penelope Madan in identical frames that suggest that they are from the same collection, and I have blogged about this mystery here.

I only found this portrait of Judith Cowper yesterday. She was a poet corresponded with Alexander Pope and hasher own entry on the Wikipedia. I found her portrait on the BBC’s Your Paintings Art Collection, which has uncovered a number of new finds. I knew nothing about the Cowper family, but will cover them soon, as it’s finds like this that bring my ancestors to life.

I’m guessing there will be more portraits to be found of this generation.

Again I only found this portrait of Spence Cowper yesterday, which gives you some idea of how live this project is. He was an MP and barrister who was involved in either a murder or tragic suicide known as the The Sarah Stout Affair. Discovering these stories from less well known families is what really fascinates me.

Again I would expect their to be more portraits of ancestors in this generation. If I can trace them this far back then they are likely to be from families that would had their portraits taken. It’s interesting to note that the handful of portraits I have found in these generations are in some way or another elated to the Maitlands, and their related families, which is an indication of their status at the time.

I only discovered Sir James Steuart, of Coltness recently through a bit of detective work while putting my ‘Genealogical dead ends revisited’ post together. He is an ancestor of Grizel Stewart. the mother of Sir John Marjoribanks, 1st Bt, who we are descended from through Maitland and Ramsay ancestors. He has his own wiki entry, and during the Reformation was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle as a Covenanter. I should do a post about our Covenanterancestors at some point.

I will look at older generation another time, but the further I go back the more aristocratic and royal the families become. This means that they are well documented and ultimately less interesting for me as far as discoveries go. I have also spent a llot of time on this recently, so could do with a break ;-)

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Summary

I originally started this blog back in 2008 as a note/scrapbook to chronicle what I'd was finding out about my family history. It's now become a repository for a random selection of anecdotes, discoveries, encounters, observations, notes, and reflections where my family history provides an excuse to experiment with creative non-fiction writing. You can find out more about me and this blog here.